For a set, Emma Raducanu appeared to have the measure of Aliaksandra Sasnovich. As the British 12th seed nailed returns, struck her backhand with silken smoothness and compiled a sequence of impressively tenacious service games, it was as though the clock had been turned back to last autumn, when she stormed to the US Open title just three months after leaving school.
But Raducanu is no longer the lowly-ranked qualifier she was then, and life has rarely been so joyfully uncomplicated since. So it proved again as the powerful and resilient Sasnovich, a former world No 30 who has been working her way back up the rankings after starting the year barely inside the top 100, punished a lull in intensity from Raducanu to inflict a crushing 3-6, 6-1, 6-1 defeat on the 19-year-old.
The abrupt nature of the turnaround was underscored by the torrent of winners that flowed from Sasnovich’s racket, not so much forcing Raducanu on to the back foot as leaving her flat on her back. Nineteen second-set winners to just four unforced errors tell their own story. Raducanu briefly rose from the canvas early in the decider, fashioning five break points in the third game, but Sasnovich held firm. In the next game, a mistimed forehand cost Raducanu another break, and the death knell began to sound on the Briton’s first clay-court season.
“I think that I definitely got stronger as the clay season went on,” said Raducanu, whose first professional campaign on a surface to which her game is not naturally tailored has yielded some encouraging results, most notably a quarter-final in Stuttgart.
“It just takes a lot more to win the point on this surface, and, you know, you hit a ball flat, it doesn’t really do that much. I definitely learnt when to use the shape and stuff. I still have quite a long way to go on this surface but, overall, I would say I definitely had a good first experience on the clay. I think that I can definitely improve a lot more.”
There lies the rub for Raducanu. Her encouraging start against the world No 47, who dismissed her in straight-sets when they met in Indian Wells last October, offered a tangible measure of progress. Yet she is learning her craft with the eyes of the world upon her, and scrutiny and expectation do little to promote development. It can do little to help when heavyweight observers like John McEnroe weigh in with their two cents’ worth.
“There is this pressure on her, this expectation, that has gotten a little bit overwhelming,” McEnroe told Eurosport. “She has changed coaches, three, four or five times which is unbelievable for someone who has just come off winning a major.
“Honestly, if I won the US Open having gone through qualifying, I wouldn’t change my coach at least for the next year, so I don’t understand that move… This idea of a revolving door of coaches, I just don’t think that’s good for any player, much less so for a player at this stage of her career.”
Raducanu, however, sees things differently, emphasising that she is making constant if gradual progress in spite of the challenges that accompany her status as a prize scalp.
“I’m quite happy with the progress that I’m making,” said Raducanu. “I do feel like I’m playing some pretty good tennis, and on the practice court I’m definitely working. Certain things I’m working on [on] the practice court that are paying off, they don’t show immediately. There is a little time lag between when they will actually produce results.
“I think some parts of my tennis game have actually improved compared to last year. It’s different when you are someone who may have a target on their back. Everyone raises their game, wants to play well, wants to beat you, take you out. That’s something I have definitely kind of learnt on the tour this year.”
It is a sentiment Maria Sakkari will recognise only too well. The Greek fourth seed, who came within a point of making the final at Roland Garros last year and was beaten by Raducanu in the semi-finals of the US Open last season, has endured a torrid clay-court swing, slumping to early defeats in Stuttgart and Madrid amid injury and indifferent form.
An early meeting with the unseeded Czech Karolina Muchova, a former Australian Open semi-finalist who is working her way back from an abdominal injury, was hardly a prospect to relish in the circumstances, and Sakkari was undone 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-4) to become the latest casualty in the bottom half.
“She played an amazing match,” said Sakkari. “She always plays extremely well in grand slams, and today she was the better player, so I have to give it to her.
“It’s disappointing for sure, because it is still is my favourite tournament and I’m sad. But at the same time there were a lot of positives today, because I found myself again in the court. I’m feeling good. I’m fighting. I’m enjoying my time on the court, so I think that great things are going to happen soon.”